My last post was dated the 29th of April – how time flies! Hopefully I have a few readers still checking back Don’t worry though, I definitely didn’t forget about the blog. I worried about and often itched to write a blog post, but the past few weeks have been beyond crazy: training for races, deadlines – you name it, I did it!

Yet the lack of posts doesn’t mean there was a lack of cooking or baking. I’ve got heaps of great recipes lined up and ready to go for all of you, including some savory which hasn’t been showing much on Crunch and Chew.

The pancakes get their coconuttiness from coconut butter in the actual batter, used to replace the usual oil or margarine in vegan pancakes. Simple but delicious soft serve ties the dish together – and who doesn’t like ice cream for breakfast?

First off, I’d like to apologise for my brief blog absence over this past Easter weekend. In the midst of vacationing and Easter celebrations, sadly I couldn’t find the time to write a post and greet you a Happy Easter! Better late than never, though, and I hope that you all had a joyful Easter

If you’ve been reading my blog for a bit, or if you’ve taken a peek at my recipe page, you may have noticed that I have a bit of a thing for these ricepuddings. They all use the same ‘base’ recipe and are all oh-so-easy and quick to whip up, making them perfect for breakfast. Unlike the other rice puddings however, today’s recipe doesn’t use fruit.

No, it uses something even better (though not quite as good as chocolate): COFFEE <—this here is the face I make after having 5 cups.

Like some of my other recipes, this was an experiment which fortunately turned out quite nicely. It uses a strong dose of real coffee so you won’t be missing out on any caffeine, though surely there’s no harm in having an extra cup with this breakfast?

Brew your coffee – I chose to make strong coffee from instant coffee granules, but you can use coffee from a press or a bag so long as you make it really strong.

Place all ingredients including the coffee (except the drizzle of soymilk and chopped hazelnuts for serving) in a small saucepan and stir to combine.

Heat over medium-high heat and allow to boil continuously, stirring constantly, until mixture is reduced and the desired consistency is reached (takes around 10 minutes). Serve with a touch of soymilk and chopped hazelnuts on top. Makes about 3/4 cup of rice pudding, a small serve for one.

It’s crucial that you make your coffee extra-strong in order for the flavor to shine in the finished pudding. If you’re worried about caffeine, you can always use decaf – it’s the flavor that counts. On that note, I’ll have to try this with tea.

As with all the other rice puddings, it’s simply a matter of placing all the ingredients in a saucepan. Sweet and simple!

I’ve dubbed this stuff ‘vegan heaven’ and ‘too dangerous to keep in my house’. It is just that good.

For those who saw my Rainbow Magic Cupcakes, this was the cute creamy swirl on top and the frosting recipe that I said I’d post in due time. To be honest, I seriously considered keeping this recipe to myself – but where’s the fun in that? Sharing is caring

I was so lucky with that this recipe (initially an experiment) turned out much better than well. If I’d known that I’d end up with something so delicious I would’ve tripled the batch halved the recipe – my self control needs some work.

Only four ingredients come together here to make a thick, creamy and indulgently fudgy vegan frosting that’s downright addictive. The good news is that it’s relatively healthy, too – the cashews give it some serious nutritious kick and it’s sweetened with agave as opposed to confectioner’s sugar, unlike typical cupcake frostings.

The bad news is that doesn’t mean you’re allowed to single-handedly finish the whole batch within 24 hours. What can I say? I’m a rule breaker.

Ingredients:

1 cup raw cashews (no need to soak!)

1/4 to 1/2 cup nondairy milk (depends on how thick you’d like it, I used 1/4 cup)

1/2 tbsp agave nectar (more if you have a big sweet tooth)

1/4 to 1/2 t vanilla (depends on how strong you’d like the vanilla flavor, feel free to sub in other extracts like caramel or even chocolate!)

Blend all ingredients together until creamy and fudge-like. I’d recommend starting with minimal amounts of milk, vanilla and agave, then increasing to taste if required. Makes about 3/4 cup of frosting.

One of the best parts of the frosting is that it doesn’t rely on vegan butter or margarine as a base, quite like this lime buttercream made with avocado (that stuff is phenomenal, too).

Sorry, I just had to throw in the word ‘magic’ into the title – it’s totally true! There’s a magical moment when you bite into these and reveal the interior…

Before we get to that, however, you might be wondering why I’m straying from the ‘generally wholesome food’ theme here on Crunch and Chew. It was a certain someone’s birthday a few weeks back and as a food-lover and now-blogger, I find it heaps of fun making your own birthday food and more importantly your own birthday cake! I chose to make cupcakes instead of a massive cake for ease of sharing and decorating – and really, who doesn’t find cupcakes cute?

These cupcakes do take a little time and effort to prepare, but the finished product is wonderful and absolutely worth it. Unfortunately I did resolve to using food coloring to color these cupcakes. I’m not sure how using natural food dyes (like ones you get from beetroot or spinach) would work, but if you do try it please let me know – I’d be interested to find out!

Finally, before I leave you with the recipe, you might have noticed that creamy-looking swirl of frosting on the cupcakes. Out of sheer luck, an attempt to improvise a creamy frosting out of cashews turned out amazingly. Vanilla Cashew Fudge Frosting. Every bit as good as it sounds! You’ll have to wait a day or two for the recipe though, just to keep you in suspense

Preheat oven to 350F/180C. Lightly oil six holes of a cupcake tin, or line them with cupcake liners.

In a large bowl, mix together the milk and vinegar. Allow to curdle.

Add oil, sugar and vanilla and whisk.

Sift in remaining ingredients and mix to combine. Try to eliminate as many lumps as possible from the mixture (some small lumps are okay).

Divide batter between six bowls. In each bowl, add food coloring drop by drop (mixing after each drop) until the desired color is reached for that bowl. Here’s a sort-of guide as to how I colored the batter:

6. Divide each bowl of colored batter between the six cupcake holes. I made the layers by dripping the batter off a spoon in a swirl beginning from the edge going into the middle of the cupcake holes, then gently smoothing out the batter with the teaspoon (hope this makes sense). My layers went in the order of the colors in the guide above, with purple at the bottom and red and the top.

7. Bake cupcakes for 18-22 minutes, or until they spring back when lightly touched and a cake tester comes out clean when inserted into the middle of the cupcakes.

Vinegar and non-dairy milk paired with baking powder/soda is always a sure-fire way to make vegan cupcakes rise. Check out that curdle!

Add in the rest of your wet ingredients…

…and whisk. I used brown sugar and, what a surprise, the batter turned brown! It didn’t affect the colors much (if at all) in the end, though next time I’d use caster or white sugar.

Once the batter’s finished (dry ingredients sifted in and mixed), divide it into 6 small bowls. Try to make them as even as possible. I matched the color of the bowls with the color of the batter they’d contain, except for the two (purple and orange) batters where I’d have to do some mixing (These pictures make me happy just looking at them! Or maybe it’s withdrawal…)

Now for the fun part – coloring! Go drop by drop and remember that a little goes a long way.

Now for the not-so-fun part – layering. This takes time and concentration. (Yes, I ran out of yellow batter for one of the cupcakes)

Once the layering is done, pop the tin into your oven and breathe out in relief. Your work here is done!

While you have used quite a few bowls, cleaning up isn’t too hard, especially if you have a dishwasher. If you don’t, not to worry as the batter comes off easily.

They will look and smell glorious once done. My cupcakes had speckled tops, though it didn’t bother me knowing that I would be frosting them.

All dressed up with vanilla cashew fudge frosting and a sprinkle of nonpareils (hundreds and thousands to some. Sprinkles work too!). While the rainbow effect isn’t as obvious from the outside of the cupcakes…

A while ago I was lucky enough to pay a visit to an old friend. She’s a vegetarian, too, and a great baker, and was so kind as to bake me a few treats to try! They were all delicious, but there was one that I simply couldn’t forget. That’s right – coconut crackles.

If you’re a coconut lover I guarantee you’ll love this. Double coconut crispy mouthfuls – I’ll leave it at that. I try to post generally healthy recipes here on Crunch and Chew, but it never hurts to have a treat

She mentioned using the ‘base’ of this recipe, without the dried fruit. Here you go!

Ingredients:

2 cups rice krispies (could sub for brown rice cereal, I think, if you wanted to make

1/2 cup caster sugar

1/2 cup desiccated coconut

125g vegetable shortening, coconut based

In a large bowl combine the rice krispies, sugar and coconut.

In a small saucepan, heat the shortening until melted. Pour this over the rice dry mixture and mix well to fully combine.

In a muffin tin or plate lined/covered with cupcake papers, scoop tablespoons of the mixture into the papers. Refrigerate to set. Makes approx. 16

I love the simplicity of the recipe, but feel free to add chocolate chips, nuts, dried fruit or other mix-ins to your heart’s desire!

I had serious trouble naming this post. Going from apple pie softies to apple muffin tops to pillowy clouds of apple pie heaven, I settled for the original name – nothing describes these better!

Yep, yet another one of Angela’s recipes. I’m now well aware that I have an obsession with Oh She Glows – I’m working on it! These were first shown about three months ago and I haven’t got a clue why it took me so long to get around to making this recipe – these are incredible.

The best part about these muffin tops isn’t the fact that they’re truly just soft, sweet pieces of apple in clouds of pillowy cinnamon muffin. These are oil-free and full of nutritious, wholesome ingredients, so you won’t begin to develop any other type of unwanted muffin tops…

Drop large spoonfuls of batter onto your pre-prepared sheet. Make sure they have enough space to spread out a little. Don’t press the mixture flat.

Bake for 12-15 minutes or until a little golden. These cookies remain fairly soft and moist – they don’t crisp up. The final result should be muffin-like in texture.

Cool on pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool. Makes around 16-20 muffin tops, depending on what size you make them.

I used a vegetable (potato) peeler to peel the apples. Saves so much time! Naked apples:

I’m pretty sure you’ll find something useful to do with those nutrient-packed apple skins. Me, I zapped them in the microwave until they were soft and sprinkled them with cinnamon.

Tip: be quick after grating your apples and making your apple pie mixture. The grated apple turns brown really quickly! Next time I’d add a little lemon juice to the grated stuff – not that it made any difference in the finished product, though.

Mix your dry ingredients…

And the wet… (cooled apple pie mixture has been added in this picture)

Add the wet into the dry, mix to form a batter and drop spoonfuls onto your cookie sheet. Smile – you’re only 15 minutes away from apple pie goodness! (Though the uncooked batter tastes amazing, too. I would know; I was on clean-up duty )

…and out of the oven they come. Warm, apple pie pillows.

A few different types of muffin tops greeted me when I took the tray out of the oven.